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Blister pack is clearly 'key' to adapter visibility

New thermoformed clear vinyl package improves shelf presence, while it lowers costs for Keyspan adapters.

Finished packaged product (below) as it comes off the turntable of an RF sealer (bottom left).
Finished packaged product (below) as it comes off the turntable of an RF sealer (bottom left).

The trend toward clear see-through packaging is driven by one fundamental marketing truth: Consumers want to see what they’re buying—even when the product is a practical, technical one like Keyspan adapters for personal computers.

Responding to feedback from retailers, Keyspan changed in early 1999 from a corrugated box, which it had used for six months, to a clear, one-piece hinged plastic blister package. Keyspan used this new package to introduce its newest product, the universal serial bus personal digital assistant (USB PDA) adapter. It’s used to connect Palm organizers and other PDAs to the USB port on a Mac or PC and for other products already on the market.

Mike Ridenhour, president of Richmond, CA-based Keyspan, states that “the previous packaging did not allow a customer to see the enclosed product. There was a photo of the product on the outside, but it was not as appealing or effective as showing the product itself.”

The new package uses Klöckner Pentaplast of America’s (Gordonsville, VA) 20-mil clear Pentaform® TH 557 rigid vinyl. It’s thermoformed by Merrill’s Packaging (Burlingame, CA), which also packs out the products for Keyspan.

Ridenhour states that “Although the specific shape of the package was made for our product(s), other companies can certainly make and use packaging that is essentially the same as ours.” Keyspan sells its products worldwide, and response from retailers to the new package is enthusiastic. Ridenhour notes that strong sales in retail stores, such as Micro Center and Datavision, indicate that customers appreciate the package as well. Between the savings in actual package production and reduced packing time because of the clamshell design, Ridenhour calculates that the new package costs 20¢ less than the previous one.

A division of Innosys Inc., Keyspan originally started selling other adapters through mail-order outlets in 1997, using a shrink-wrapped corrugated box and four-color custom-printed sleeve. According to Ridenhour, the new PDA Adapter was never sold in a corrugated box. Keyspan had sold a different USB adapter in a corrugated box.

“When we first showed retail store buyers the products, they told us that the box would not be as effective on store shelves as another type of package that made the product more visible,” says Ridenhour. Not only was the product not visible in the box, but the graphic on the sleeve was a conceptual illustration, showing little men moving data from one place to another—not a realistic rendering of the product itself.

Rapid response, quality design

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